Disneyland Paris celebrated France’s national holiday with a special nighttime spectacular featuring more than 1,600 drones above Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Bastille Day 2026 at Disneyland Paris

In an Instagram post, Disneyland Paris shared a look at their special Bastille Day nighttime spectacular in the sky over the park’s castle, Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant. The description for the short Reel reads:

The sky over Disneyland Paris shone bright during the Bastille Day celebrations! 🇫🇷🏰 During this magical journey, Tinker Bell transported Sleeping Beauty’s Castle to the heart of the greatest Disney and Pixar classics. 

An enchanting drone choreography brought to life by our official supplier @dronisos_droneshows , blended with spectacular light displays.

The one-night-only Bastille Day production was originally designed to combine its extensive drone choreography with fireworks, lasers, projections, lighting, and fountains. However, Disneyland Paris removed all pyrotechnic effects from the July 14 performance due to a regional heatwave leading to restrictions imposed by the Seine-et-Marne prefecture out of concern for wildfires.

Consequently, the resulting performance was modified from the resort’s previous Bastille Day spectaculars. Rather than using drones to complement a large fireworks display, the 2026 show focused on its aerial formations, castle projections, searchlights, lasers, smoke effects, and music to carry the production.

Last year, Disneyland Paris set a new Guinness World Records title for the “Largest aerial display of a fictional character formed by multirotors/drones” during their Bastille Day celebration when 1,571 drones created a tricolor Mickey Mouse head, a formation repeated at the end of this year’s show. The year before, the show set the record for most drones used in a show in Disney Parks history.

This year, more than 1,600 drones operated by Dronisos, a specialized drone show company, spread across the sky behind Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant. Disneyland Paris paired the drone choreography with a new soundtrack and synchronized lighting across the castle.

The show opened with Tinker Bell inviting guests on a journey around the world through Disney and Pixar stories, including characters and visuals from Aladdin, Mulan, Brave, Frozen, and Peter Pan.

Throughout the show, the swarm of drones formed up into the shape of various Disney icons and French landmarks. The sky over the castle was illuminated with the visuals of the Eifel Tower, Tinker Bell, Mickey Mouse, the Agrabah palace, frozen fractcals, the red windmill of Moulin Rouge, and more.

Sleeping Beauty Castle changed repeatedly throughout the production, glowing in shades of blue, purple, green, gold, and the red, white, and blue of the French flag. Searchlights and lasers swept through the air while projection mapping extended the animation across the castle’s turrets and surrounding scenery.

Changes From Previous Years

Disneyland Paris has increasingly used Bastille Day as a showcase for large-scale drone technology, but the drones previously shared the sky with extensive pyrotechnics.

The resort’s 2024 Bastille Day show was structured around five scenes celebrating Disney stories inspired by France. That production included imagery from Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Sleeping Beauty, The Aristocats, and Ratatouille. It also depicted French landmarks and architectural symbols, including the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame Cathedral.

For its finale, 1,571 drones assembled into a giant Mickey Mouse head colored like the French flag. The formation earned Disneyland Paris a Guinness World Records title for the largest aerial display of a fictional character formed by multirotors or drones.

The 2025 Bastille Day production again combined fireworks with roughly 1,500 drones. Once again, the show emphasized French-connected Disney and Pixar films such as Ratatouille and Beauty and the Beast, continuing the structure of the previous show.

The 2026 presentation departed from that formula in several significant ways. It used a larger fleet of more than 1,600 drones, introduced an entirely new soundtrack, and expanded its story beyond films specifically associated with France.

The removal of fireworks, however, fundamentally changed the show’s pacing. The ongoing heatwave restrictions meant much of the show had to center exclusively on aerial drone formations, laser effects, and castle projection mapping. It also appears that water and fountain effects around the castle were also reduced as part of the adapted show.

Although the restrictions were imposed shortly before the performance, the 1,600-drone fleet allowed the show to remain visually substantial in scale, occupying much of the sky above Fantasyland.

You can check out the original post from Disneyland Paris below:

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